Larry Van Tuyl buys dealerships in Texas and California, expanding holdings

Larry Van Tuyl, who sold his empire of 81 dealerships to Warren Buffet in 2015, now owns eight dealerships after buying two Ferrari stores and two Toyota outlets over two weeks early this year.

Van Tuyl, through his Visionary Automotive Group, on Jan. 19 bought Ferrari of Houston and Ferrari of The Woodlands, both in Texas, from Giuseppe Risi. On Feb. 1, he bought Northridge Toyota and Toyota of Santa Barbara in Goleta, both in California, from Hitchcock Automotive Resources.

The acquisitions follow Van Tuyl's purchase of a Honda dealership last May in Houston. The former chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Automotive bought a BMW dealership in Glendale, Ariz., late in 2020 and also owns a Volvo store, which he acquired from Berkshire Hathaway, and a new Jaguar-Land Rover dealership, also in Glendale.

Van Tuyl, 72, told Automotive News that he is "actively looking" for more dealerships to buy but has nothing else under contract.

He said he's not looking to grow to a certain annual revenue target or dealership count, but "just what feels right. We don't know what that is right now."

But he said he does want to ensure he does deals with "the right people and the manufacturers and the right locations so that you can hire, attract [and] retain people."

The former CEO of Van Tuyl Group sold his portfolio of dealerships to Berkshire Hathaway in March 2015. At the time, the group was ranked by Automotive News as the fourth-largest U.S. dealership group based on new-vehicle retail sales in 2014.

In his latest acquisitions, Van Tuyl purchased dealerships in markets where he previously had stores with Van Tuyl Group, such as the greater Los Angeles area where the Toyota stores are located, and where he already has a presence in Houston.

"We did a lot of business with Toyota in our previous life," he said. "I love Toyota and I feel like it is a leading brand for sure."

The two Toyota dealerships and a third Toyota outlet sold to another group last month were the last remaining dealerships for the Hitchcock group. The group's founder, Fritz Hitchcock, died in August 2021 at 81. The prominent California dealer and industry advocate started his group in 1979 and grew it to include Toyota, BMW, Ford, Hyundai and Volkswagen dealerships at various points.

Hitchcock Automotive partners Ted Hitchcock, Fritz's son, Howard Hakes and Beth Hakes, sold their third dealership, Puente Hills Toyota in City of Industry, Calif., on Jan. 31 to Kaminsky Automotive, according to Kerrigan Advisors. That's a sell-side firm in Irvine, Calif., that represented Hitchcock Automotive in the Toyota dealerships transactions.

Kaminsky Automotive also has Honda of El Cajon Superstore and Toyota of El Cajon in California in its portfolio and is owned by brothers Greg and Gary Kaminsky.

"It was very important to the family that we found the right new owners with the vision to continue our dealerships' record of excellence, success and service in their communities," Howard Hakes, president of Hitchcock Automotive, said in a statement.

While Toyota is a familiar brand to Van Tuyl, the two Ferrari dealerships are the first of the exotic brand for the entrepreneur.

"He's definitely excited to have them in the family," said Bill Scrivner, CEO of Pinnacle Mergers & Acquisitions, a Frisco, Texas, buy-sell firm that represented Van Tuyl in the Ferrari transactions.

Like Hitchcock, Risi is a well-known dealer. He opened Ferrari of Houston in 1980 after receiving authorization from Enzo Ferrari, according to the dealership's website. Risi also is founder and manager of Ferrari racing team Risi Competizione.

Van Tuyl said he and Risi "really hit it off." He said he also liked that the dealerships were in Texas and were from a brand with a rich history.

"[Ferrari is] building some great, creative dynamic products and so I'm enthused about it," he said.

Van Tuyl said he expects to employ 600 to 700 people at the dealerships by the end of the 2022.

"We're certainly not there now because a lot of the dealerships, like the ones we just bought, because of COVID-19, etc., had reduced the amount of people that they had," he said. "But we expect to see that turning pretty quickly."